REMBRANDT VAN RIJN The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight.
Etching and drypoint, 1654. 210x163 mm; 8 1/4x6 1/2 inches. Biörklund's first state (of 2); Usticke's first state (of 3), before the diagonal shading in the upper right corner; New Hollstein's first state (of 4). With thread margins or trimmed on the plate mark. A brilliant, richly-inked impression with selective wiping and significant burr throughout, consistent with the earliest impressions of this subject, notably on the chest of the figure pulling down the cloth from the cross, on Christ's beard, on the back of the figure supporting Christ's body and on the lines in the cross to the left of the torch.
Provenance: Sophie Rosenwald Adler, Los Angeles, the aunt of Lessing Rosenwald (see Lugt 1760b). Bartsch 83; Biörklund 54-G; Hollstein (White and Boon) 83; New Hollstein 286.
